Manufacturing News
October 19, 2026
October 19, 2026 · Daviess County · Story 1 of 5
Kratos Breaks Ground on $70 Million Radar and Hypersonics Complex Near Crane
Kratos Defense and Rocket Support Services held a groundbreaking ceremony on October 14 at Westgate Academy in Odon for two new facilities tied to NSWC Crane. The Indiana Radar Integration Complex, a 183,000-square-foot plant, will repair, test and sustain the Navy's AN/SPY-1 radar system. The adjacent Helios Arc Jet and Laser Facility pairs a 20 to 25 megawatt arc jet with a 200-kilowatt fiber laser to test thermal-protection materials for hypersonic vehicles.
Kratos Defense and Rocket Support Services held a groundbreaking ceremony on October 14 at Westgate Academy in Odon for two new facilities tied to NSWC Crane. The Indiana Radar Integration Complex, a 183,000-square-foot plant, will repair, test and sustain the Navy's AN/SPY-1 radar system. The adjacent Helios Arc Jet and Laser Facility pairs a 20 to 25 megawatt arc jet with a 200-kilowatt fiber laser to test thermal-protection materials for hypersonic vehicles. The Department of War's Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program is putting in $35 million, matched by $35 million from Kratos. "The groundbreaking of the IRIC and Helios facilities furthers Kratos' support to the U.S. Armed Forces," said Dave Carter, president of Kratos Defense and Rocket Support Services. With a prior $50 million facility and a separate Bloomfield energetics plant already in the area, Kratos has now committed more than $120 million to a single cluster around Crane, positioning itself as a non-OEM alternative to Raytheon on radar sustainment work as Raytheon directs its own investment toward newer SPY-6 production.
For your morning huddle
- Q
If Kratos is building a vertically integrated ground-to-flight-test pipeline at Crane, are there sustainment or materials-testing subcontracts in that supply chain our shop should be bidding into now, before the facility is fully operational?
Look now at subcontracts tied to AN/SPY-1 radar sustainment and thermal-protection materials testing, since Kratos is still building out its vendor base before IRIC and Helios reach full operation.
Briefing note
- Impact
- This isn't just capex, it's Kratos positioning itself as a non-OEM alternative to Raytheon, which has dominated SPY-1 sustainment but is pouring $800 million into doubling SPY-6 production under a $1.8 billion Navy contract extension, making it commercially rational for Raytheon to quietly cede the sunset SPY-1 market. IRIC's location, within roughly 1.5 miles of NSWC Crane, effectively functions as a quasi-depot annex that could extend the service life of older Burke and Ticonderoga hulls that can't support SPY-6's power demands, pushing fleet retirements further out. Combined with Kratos' prior $50 million IPIF facility and a separate Bloomfield energetics plant, the company has now committed well over $120 million in private capital to a single cluster around Crane, an unusual concentration with no close parallel in the current IBAS portfolio.
- Watch
- Watch for whether Kratos or the Pentagon reconciles the $35 million IBAS figure in this release against the $68.3 million Helios contract originally announced in October 2025, a financing discrepancy nobody has yet explained publicly.
Sources
- Kratos begins construction of Indiana facilities for Navy AN/SPY-1 radar sustainment and hypersonic materials testing · defence-industry.eu
Earlier coverage
From the brief, October 19, 2026
- Kratos Breaks Ground on $70 Million Radar and Hypersonics Complex Near Crane
- Indiana Foreign Trade Zone Tariffs Relief Drives a 53% Membership Surge
- Marshall County's Labor Pool Shrinks Even as Unemployment Hits 3.2%
- Winnebago Cuts 51 More Jobs in Iowa While Indiana's Middlebury Plant Keeps Running
- Urschel Laboratories Names Tim Crammer President in Chesterton
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